Climate Climate & Energy
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Lovins predicts the coming oil price crash won’t be like the last one
The world can always use another profile of Amory Lovins — here’s one in The Economist. (Check out the nuke boosters in comments — man, those guys are like spurned lovers. Let it go already.) My skepticism about Lovins’ rosy predictions is captured here: Fine, but what about the specific criticism that any coming oil-price […]
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Energy efficiency, part 5: ‘The highest documented rate of return of any federal program’
I was at the U.S. Department of Energy when the Gingrich gang took over and tried to shut down all of DOE’s applied energy research, claiming it was a waste of taxpayer money. I helped organize a major report documenting the large return to the U.S. taxpayers of federal spending on energy efficiency (and other […]
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Arctic shrinks by one Alaska and three Arizonas in August
Another week, another record in Arctic ice-loss announced by the National Snow and Ice Data Center: Following a record rate of ice loss through the month of August, Arctic sea ice extent already stands as the second-lowest on record, further reinforcing conclusions that the Arctic sea ice cover is in a long-term state of decline. […]
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NYT editors confused about Arctic warming
Here’s the absurd headline for the online version of Revkin’s New York Times story about how “a ring of navigable waters has opened all around the fringes of the cap of sea ice drifting on the warming Arctic Ocean”: Arctic Ice Hints at Warming, Specialists Say Hints? How about “shouts from the rafters.” After seeing […]
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In 2008, did temperatures drop as much as they rose over the whole 20th century?
(Part of the How to Talk to a Climate Skeptic guide) Objection: Temperatures plummeted over the last year (2007-2008). If you look at this data from the Met Office Hadley Centre you can clearly see that in one year alone global temperatures dropped .6°C, an amount equal to the entire warming over the 20th […]
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Palin to oversee energy in McCain administration?
OMFG: "Sarah Palin to be energy independence chief in John McCain’s government" I’m not sure how much to credit this — it’s the Brit press, after all, and tied to a single, unnamed "McCain campaign official." But it wouldn’t surprise me. They’ve somehow managed to pitch a woman whose sole claim to expertise on energy […]
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Over Nevadan objections, Yucca Mountain repository inches forward
Nevada’s Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump inched forward Monday as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission agreed to formally review the feds’ license application for the site. It will likely take the NRC four years or so to peruse the Department of Energy’s 8,600-page application and decide whether to give Yucca the go-ahead. Attorneys for the state […]
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Tom Friedman talks up the need for an ‘energy revolution’ on ‘Meet the Press’
New York Times columnist and author Thomas Friedman was on “Meet the Press” yesterday, discussing the need for an “energy revolution.” The appearance coincided with publication of his new book, Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution — and How It Can Renew America. Said Friedman, “What we need today is an […]
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Arctic ringed by navigable water; rush to exploit it may spur new int’l law
For the first time in recorded history, the world’s cap of Arctic sea ice is surrounded by a ring of theoretically navigable water. It’s a phenomenon sure to pique the interest of Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the U.S., which all have Arctic territories and are maneuvering to claim as much of […]
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U.N. climate chief urges eating less meat to combat climate change
Rajendra Pachauri, head of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said this weekend that eating less meat may be the best way for people to reduce their personal carbon emissions. “In terms of immediacy of action and the feasibility of bringing about reductions in a short period of time, it clearly is […]
